u/whothefuckisgio

Hi everyone. First of all, I’m not looking for an online diagnosis and I know Reddit can’t replace a professional evaluation. I’m mostly looking to hear from people who may relate to what I experience.

For a long time I’ve struggled with a lot of anxiety, especially social and relationship-related anxiety. I tend to overanalyze everything: texts, tone of voice, changes in behavior, facial expressions, social dynamics, etc. I constantly question how other people perceive me and I often feel out of place or “different” from others.

At the same time, there are some things that make me wonder if it’s only anxiety. Multiple people throughout my life have told me that I seem like I could have “high-functioning autism” (I know that term isn’t really used clinically anymore, but that’s how they described it). Not as an insult, just as an observation about the way I act and process things.

Sometimes I feel like I experience social interactions in a very analytical and “thought-based” way instead of naturally, like I have to consciously think about things that seem automatic for other people. I’m also extremely emotionally sensitive, get overwhelmed easily, and often feel fundamentally different from others, even though I care deeply about relationships and other people’s emotions.

I don’t know whether this could all fall under generalized/social anxiety, being a very sensitive person, or whether it might be worth looking into ASD.

Has anyone here experienced something similar? How did you personally tell the difference between anxiety/social anxiety and possible autism?

Thank you in advance. 🤍

Not just our attention spans. I mean the way we experience existence. People struggle to watch a movie without checking their phone. Silence feels uncomfortable. Moments feel incomplete if they aren’t documented. Opinions are formed in seconds. Even memory feels outsourced now. McLuhan’s idea that media reshape human consciousness feels less like theory and more like a diagnosis

Hi everyone, I wanted to ask for some opinions because I’ve been wondering for a while if I could possibly be neurodivergent in a way that was never fully recognized when I was younger.
I’m diagnosed with moderate dysgraphia (mainly graphomotor/writing fluency issues), but cognitively my results were overall above average.

On the WISC-IV my scores were:
Verbal Comprehension: 102
Perceptual Reasoning Index (PRI/IRP): 124
Working Memory: 106
Processing Speed: 109
Full Scale IQ: 114

What stands out most is the 124 PRI score, and I’ve read that many autistic/Asperger people tend to have very high perceptual or pattern-based reasoning abilities, so I started questioning things more.
A lot of people in my life (including my psychologist) think I may actually have ADHD. When I was younger I underwent several evaluations.

For autism, they quickly dismissed the possibility because during one assessment I accidentally knocked over a vase and immediately started crying and feeling guilty, which apparently made them think I couldn’t be autistic. That explanation has always felt strange and oversimplified to me.

Regarding ADHD, my EEG/brain activity results reportedly came out “irregular” or atypical, but I never received a definitive diagnosis.
Some other things about me:
I’ve always been very sensitive emotionally.
I struggled a lot with anxiety and bullying growing up.
I tend to overthink and analyze people deeply.
I’m introverted but very intense internally.
I often feel intelligent in some ways but dysfunctional in others.

I’m much stronger in visual/intuitive reasoning than in structured execution.
Writing by hand is exhausting for me despite good ideas/thoughts.

I know nobody here can diagnose me (and I don’t want to) but I wanted to ask:
- Does this profile sound relatable to autistic/Asperger or ADHD experiences?
- Can someone be missed diagnostically because they were emotionally expressive/sensitive?
- Is a high PRI like this common in neurodivergent people?

I’d really appreciate hearing from people with similar experiences.